tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37886248.post116809917979702989..comments2015-08-01T09:31:09.918-07:00Comments on Casual Kitchen: How to Tell if a Recipe is Worth Cooking With Five Easy QuestionsDanielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02388302796031288076noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37886248.post-60259136605233976712013-07-10T08:53:22.485-07:002013-07-10T08:53:22.485-07:00Thanks for these great tips. They&#39;re extremely...Thanks for these great tips. They&#39;re extremely important to remember, and yet sometimes I forget. I think the key is to always remember what we&#39;re giving back to the reader! And the recipe of Greek white bean soup sounds really good. Must try it soon. Thanks again for sharing!BettyAnn @Mango_Queenhttp://www.asianinamericamag.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37886248.post-28528445939067936552012-06-02T16:38:43.442-07:002012-06-02T16:38:43.442-07:00I&#39;m coming in rather late w2ith my comment abo...I&#39;m coming in rather late w2ith my comment about &quot;How to Tell if a Recipe is Worth Cooking With Five Easy Questions&quot;<br /><br />Even experienced cooks/bakers don&#39;t always know in advance the ins and outs of a recipe. We may scratch our heads and say &quot;hmmm&quot; a few times before deciding.<br /><br />I think your 5 questions cover a lot of ground and can help ANYONE who is toying with the idea of trying a recipe for the first time; nice job on the article:)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37886248.post-68041791667409978282011-01-13T13:58:37.938-08:002011-01-13T13:58:37.938-08:00I&#39;ve been reading your blog for a couple month...I&#39;ve been reading your blog for a couple months now and I enjoy it a lot. I was thinking about this post two days ago when I made a very complicated chicken pot pie recipe(a goes in dutch oven, a comes out, b, c and d go in, b, c and d go out, d goes in with e and f, and so on without any regard for how heavy a damned dutch oven is and i had to get assistance each time grumble grumble). After almost two hours of working on stupid dish it came out bland. So one point I would add on #3 is that if it&#39;s a new recipe and it takes forever because it&#39;s overly complicated and THEN turns out to be not so great, your disappointment in the dish is going to be at least doubled. (It pretty much ruined my day, I would say for me it was tripled.)<br />But I can&#39;t say you didn&#39;t warn me ;)Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04880245128036389582noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37886248.post-36855723621030758032010-04-02T20:11:32.860-07:002010-04-02T20:11:32.860-07:00chacha1: Leave &#39;em out. If you hate olives, n...chacha1: Leave &#39;em out. If you hate olives, no point in including them in my view. Thanks for reading!<br /><br />DKDanielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02388302796031288076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37886248.post-30827900253320872712010-04-02T16:42:43.637-07:002010-04-02T16:42:43.637-07:00Hi Dan, first-time commenter (linked from Cheap He...Hi Dan, first-time commenter (linked from Cheap Healthy Good and have spent the last hour browsing your blog). Very entertaining piece and the recipe actually sounded good &amp; easy EXCEPT I hate olives. Would you recommend substituting anything, or would it be better to just leave them out?chacha1http://www.ombailamos.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37886248.post-71075869614317465282009-10-28T04:08:08.848-07:002009-10-28T04:08:08.848-07:00I change one of the rules: can it be halved (or cu...I change one of the rules: can it be halved (or cut down even further depending on how many people it&#39;s created to serve) easily. I routinely cook for no more than 3 people. There are many dishes that I don&#39;t want leftovers for a variety of reasons.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37886248.post-68187151291851838632009-10-22T09:50:50.431-07:002009-10-22T09:50:50.431-07:00Hi Joy, these are great, great insights. Thanks f...Hi Joy, these are great, great insights. Thanks for sharing them. <br /><br />I agree in particular regarding convenience recipes. In fact, if I see an ethnic recipe that&#39;s been &quot;convenienced&quot; (i.e., important but unusual ingredients have been cut out, or key steps have been removed), I won&#39;t make it. <br /><br />The unfortunate risk to a novice cook is making the dish and not knowing it&#39;s been simplified, and ultimately making a bad fascimile of the real thing. That can turn someone off from a new cuisine.<br /><br />DKDanielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02388302796031288076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37886248.post-73400139448131242612009-10-22T09:25:14.277-07:002009-10-22T09:25:14.277-07:00How to read and assess a recipe is so important to...How to read and assess a recipe is so important to learning to cook. I think you get better with practice, too. You start to learn what the cardinal rules and conventions of cooking are and you start to discard recipes that break them. Another thing to look out for is recipes that were obviously designed for convenience. Recently, I was making some kind of coconut soup that called for a a whole can of coconut milk and a 4-cup carton of chicken stock. No leftover ingredients, but I know from experience that that&#39;s not a good ratio--the final soup would be overwhelmingly sweet. It was also a Thai-style soup that did not call for fish sauce--I bet because not everyone has it. Over time, you develop an eye for what recipes &quot;look wrong&quot; and avoid them. I always strongly recommend that beginning cooks stick with trustworthy cookbooks until they are confident about sorting the good recipes from the bad.Joy Manninghttp://whatiweightoday.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37886248.post-70809109966935010452008-11-06T12:53:00.000-08:002008-11-06T12:53:00.000-08:00Hi Laura, thank you for the feedback and the posit...Hi Laura, thank you for the feedback and the positive vibes! I hope you enjoy reading.<BR/><BR/>DKDaniel Koontzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02388302796031288076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37886248.post-63864421473116817412008-11-06T12:16:00.000-08:002008-11-06T12:16:00.000-08:00I've been looking through a lot of your tips, and ...I've been looking through a lot of your tips, and just want to say how much I enjoy them! Thanks for stopping by my blog - I'm adding yours to my list of daily reads :)Laurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17100746061554733157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37886248.post-43213817875037848672008-09-28T12:34:00.000-07:002008-09-28T12:34:00.000-07:00Hi Anonymous, thanks for reading and thank you for...Hi Anonymous, thanks for reading and thank you for the feedback. <BR/><BR/>I'm not exactly sure how to take your confusion about my gender, but I'll assume you meant it as a compliment. :)<BR/><BR/>DKDaniel Koontzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02388302796031288076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37886248.post-47569992206552683282008-09-28T09:35:00.000-07:002008-09-28T09:35:00.000-07:00I enjoyed reading this but thought it took a bit l...I enjoyed reading this but thought it took a bit long. You're a wordsy 'guy'? Thought for sure you were a woman until you spoke of your wife. Anyway, the recipe you used looks good as I like both main ingredients.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37886248.post-44764280526434756192007-12-02T14:09:00.000-08:002007-12-02T14:09:00.000-08:00Hi Beth, thanks for your comment!Yep, saffron was ...Hi Beth, thanks for your comment!<BR/><BR/>Yep, saffron was kind of the sacrificial ingredient for this post... I needed something to pick on and shout "next!" at and saffron was front of mind for some reason. <BR/><BR/>I like your suggestion for a #6, thanks for the idea!<BR/><BR/>DKDaniel Koontzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02388302796031288076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37886248.post-58893405592078528552007-11-15T21:11:00.000-08:002007-11-15T21:11:00.000-08:00Wow, you're hard on saffron! (It lives in the spic...Wow, you're hard on saffron! (It lives in the spice aisle and it's not that expensive - a little goes a very long way.)<BR/><BR/>Great post. These are the same questions that go through my mind when I read a recipe. I would have ditched this one at the title - I hate olives. <BR/><BR/>My #6 would be "how does it stand up to substitutions?" For a soup, it doesn't make much sense to substitute lots of ingredients since at that point you could just make up your own soup. For other recipes, I might take the basic idea and swap out a few ingredients.bethhttp://sustainablefoodblog.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37886248.post-80113266505442769592007-03-29T04:24:00.000-07:002007-03-29T04:24:00.000-07:00Thanks for the recipe. Just to add that the tradit...Thanks for the recipe. Just to add that the traditional greek white bean soup (fasolada) - our official national dish - is served traditionally with some black olives in the plate (not cooked, added afterwards) and smoked herring salad as a side dish.Mirandolinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10544397619431475229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37886248.post-1168974931792444272007-01-16T11:15:00.000-08:002007-01-16T11:15:00.000-08:00Great tips. Keep them coming! I will definitely ad...Great tips. Keep them coming! I will definitely add this site to my favorites.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37886248.post-1168711034026071772007-01-13T09:57:00.000-08:002007-01-13T09:57:00.000-08:00Wow. You don't get THAT kind of positive feedback...Wow. You don't get THAT kind of positive feedback every day... Thank you!Daniel Koontzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02388302796031288076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37886248.post-1168566411850365512007-01-11T17:46:00.000-08:002007-01-11T17:46:00.000-08:00This is a very entertaining bit of writing--I laug...This is a very entertaining bit of writing--I laughed out loud. You are a clever writer, for sure.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com